Projets novateurs réalisés

Inner City Work Study, University of Winnipeg- ArtsJunktion Project

The project that I would be embarking upon would be to audit their programming and recycling efforts in an attempt to better direct where they place their focus and energies. I will begin their research by auditing and analyzing the effectiveness of our current practices and researching how and where to divert materials that the organization does not accept and how to market/explain to the public what we accept, what we do not accept, and where folks can send the materials that we do not accept. Next I would evaluate the in-kind and donation/sponsorship relationships that ArtsJunktion has in place in an attempt to strengthen these relationships and further the productivity of the collaboration. The research will then expand into helping to plan programming and presenting their web presence to help promote creative reuse and sustainable practices. The process of coalition building through the creation and development of in-kind relationships and sponsorship and donation opportunities with local businesses and other charitable organizations will be the main contribution that I hope to give to the partner organization and through this process help the city that I love and live in.

Development of a heterogeneous data repository for rating broker recommendations in capital markets

Institutions recommend financial products and instruments from different brokers to their customers. The institutions are required to ensure that the trades serve their customer interests. The existing rule-based system results in high false positives. The recommendations that are identified as positives are scrutinized by financial analysts, which is costly and inefficient. The project will enhance this rule-based automated system with a data repository to reduce the false positives. The system will not only capture the human intelligence, but also the actual rate of returns from the proposed trade. In addition to being useful to the financial analysts, the data repository is expected to be used for subsequent machine learning for reducing false positive rates. This AI based system will be a significant step forward that uses state-of-the-art clustering, natural language processing (NLP), sentiment analysis, fuzzy set theory to develop both unsupervised and supervised primary machine learning models. These primary models will rate recommendations based on their deviation from the market trends, social media sentiments, and tone of emails.

Développement de nouveaux services d’encadrement de l’innovation sociale

Le stage a pour objectif d’augmenter la diversité des services offerts par ContinuumRD en complémentarité des partenaires régionaux à travers le Québec. La situation économique créer par la pandémie à souligner l’importance d’élargir le champs d’actions de la compagnie afin d’équilibrer ses budgets. C’est pour cette raison que la stagiaire Roxanne Desrosiers sera mandaté d’appuyer l’entreprise pour cet objectif très important. Elle sera supervisée par M. Pascal Beauchesne en appui à l’administrateur de ContinuumRD (Stéphane Carpentier) et jumelé au professeur Fabiano Armellini de Polytechnique Montréal.

Sustainability of Immigrant Food Business

The Women’s Economic Council is a national charitable organization that is a gathering of women-centered community economic development organizations and practitioners. Food-related businesses are a popular business choice made by newcomers. However, food businesses are highly regulated by different levels of government and have very high failure rates, which has heightened during the pandemic This project can help newcomers discover
new ways to reinvent their businesses with new models and increased accessibility to resources, both contributing to increased success, This project will increase the likelihood that immigrant business owners will feel more supported and connected in the community, contributing to immigrant retention in the province.

Retrospective molecular subtyping of pediatric medulloblastomas and theevaluation of poor prognosis gene markers

Medulloblastoma is the most common brain tumor in children. It is treated with a combination of surgical resection, chemotherapy and radiation. Radiation to a child’s brain can have harmful side effects that may have implications in later development. We intend to use molecular gene expression to validate our findings from BC Children’s Hospital regarding low and high risk tumor subgroups. Along with this, we will analyze the
expression of polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1), which may be a key protein for drug therapy development to treat high risk patients. In addition, we will investigate the underlying molecular characteristics of the highest risk medulloblastoma tumor subgroup by expanding our gene target panel to include epigenetic regulatory proteins with the goal of developing personalized cancer therapy. Molecular gene expression and clinical outcome will be correlated to better understand trends in this disease.

Automation and Optimization of Design of Single-storey Steel Buildings – RES0054368

This internship will focus on investigating potential software applications for automated steel design that has a high potential for improving the cost-effectiveness of conventional and modular construction, as all input is parametrized to allow the consideration of a multitude of real-world factors simultaneously. As a steel design and analysis software developer, the partner organization is a potential beneficiary of the research outcomes, as the optimization application could be implemented inside the software itself. A proof-of-concept study has already developed a vehicle for design optimization of a single-storey steel-framed warehouse, but it is still rudimentary in terms of the flexibilities and constraints encoded and has not been applied to modular structures. The Steel Centre has member companies that are steel fabricators and designers. This is a huge asset, as they are both willing to support this development and ease the need of implementing and verifying this on real projects.

Miss to Mrs Wedding Subscription – Data Analyst

As a business intelligence data analyst at Miss to Mrs (M2M) I will work as a part of the business development team to analyze internal operations using analytics tools in order to increase efficiency, reduce cost and maximize customer outreach. The proposed projects include scale optimization, customer analysis and cancellation policy redesign. Due to the nature of subscription box services in the wedding industry, the lifetime value of a customer is relatively low, part of the project would also involve efforts to increase that lifetime value-add. The projects are intended to help with the expansion plans at M2M to customer segments outside of brides-to-be and make sure that the internal business level strategies align with the organizational vision, thus pushing the company towards achieving those goals.

Les enjeux de la mesure de performance des politiques de diversité

La dernière décennie a été marquée par la naissance de différents mouvements sociaux (Time’s Up, Black Lives Matter, etc.) qui ont mis en lumière le chemin qu’il restait à parcourir face aux inégalités et aux discriminations, notamment au sein des institutions publiques. Bien que de nombreuses organisations s’engagent dans cette lutte depuis plusieurs années, entre autres au travers de la mise en place de politiques de diversité et d’inclusion, il leur est parfois difficile de rendre compte précisément de l’impact des mesures déployées et des changements qui ont eu lieu. Ce projet de recherche a pour but d’étudier les enjeux liés à l’élaboration et à la mise en place d’indicateurs d’impact, dont l’objectif est d’évaluer les résultats du déploiement d’un plan d’action EDI (Équité Diversité Inclusion) au sein d’une organisation policière québécoise. Les analyses menées dans le cadre de ce projet participeront à enrichir la réflexion sur les mesures de la performance en matière d’EDI et à favoriser le développement de pratiques organisationnelles plus inclusives et durables.

Evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of a natural product aqueous extract

This project intends to test the antimicrobial potential of a GRAS status, natural product extracts.
Using different varieties of our natural product we will test our own extraction procedure (currently not in use industrially) against different types of bacteria and fungi to see if they can be used as an antimicrobial treatment. This antimicrobial treatment has great potential for both human health application as well as agriculture, with emphasis on grapes.
The research aims to find the active ingredients in extracts that show promise to adapt for future antimicrobial research.

Investigation of adverse effects and healing factor properties of a novel formulation from Blue-O Medical Technology – Phase II

The appearance of multidrug resistance of pathogens poses challenges for researchers and industrial communities to develop more efficacious antimicrobial treatments1. Blue-O Technology Incorporation (Blue-O Tech) has developed a novel formulation of medicine that accelerates the wound healing process, while having an excellent antimicrobial strength over a broad spectrum of pathogens. Skin is the first physical barrier of the body that prevents the internalization of microorganisms. At the same time, it is a reservoir of approximately 1000 different bacterial species distributed across 19 phyla.

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Development of a lymphatic in-vitro model to study drug uptake

The lymphatic system serves an integral role in fluid homeostasis, lipid metabolism and immune control of the human body. Lipid based nano-carriers employing lymphatic voyage offer multitude of advantages like enhanced bioavailability, selective targeting to localized as well as metastatic conditions, controlled delivery and others. Lipid-based nano-carriers have been tested on various experimental various in-vivo, in-vitro, ex-vivo and in-silico models. The in-vivo models provide the best drug transport estimation, but they are both invasive and irreversible. However, presently there is no in vitro model that can be used to accurately investigate the lymphotropic lipid-based nano-formulations. In this study, we aim at developing an in-vitro model for studying intestinal lymph targeted drug delivery including simulated lymphatic fluid and cellular environment and to establish a 3D model for lymphotropic drug transport. Attaining these objectives would open a wide door for the development of drugs targeting the lymphatic system for various indications and vaccinations.

Urban Agriculture in Kuching, Malaysia

While urban agriculture (UA) can potentially increase food security for city dwellers and beautify marginal urban spaces, it might also yield negative consequences for communities. For instance, in developing Asia, the contamination of urban-grown foods is concerning as pollution from some of the world’s largest emerging economies is difficult to regulate. Additionally, research has shown that policies aiming to promote UA may actually serve to exclude the most vulnerable groups. UA scholarship has been occurring in silos, with environmental and social aspects of UA being largely examined separately. Through a long-term, mixed-method, ethnographic approach entailing mapping, interviewing, photovoice and vegetable toxicitiy testing, the aim of my research is to examine the ways in which contemporary UA movements in Kuching, Malaysia are structured, motivated, and experienced across intersectional lines. The outcomes of this work will highlight the strategies that communities use to navigate UA in search of safe foods and sustainable, just urban futures.